Find out why you’re seeing low customer satisfaction, the best ways to improve it, and how elevating your pest control software can yield significant results.
Customer satisfaction is the key to pretty much any organisation’s success. It’s a reflection of how happy someone is with your service, their experience, and your business as a whole.
And it can make or break a company these days, especially in a business like pest control, where service must be scheduled and is often provided as a response to a stressful situation — and where most cancellations are caused by unmet expectations.
Customer service impacts everything from customer retention and reputation to brand loyalty and referrals, so it’s not a metric to put on the back burner. If you’re not providing a good experience for your customers and nurturing the relationships you already have, you’ll pay a high cost to constantly try to bring in new clientele. It’s crucial to the longevity of your business that you take a good, long look at where your customer service and engagement need improvement.
So, how can you tell how your pest control organisation is doing — where you shine, and where you’re deficient? To start, a few helpful KPIs to track that measure customer experience (and therefore satisfaction) include Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) and Customer Effort Score (CES).
Here, we’ll dig into some of the top reasons why you’re seeing low customer satisfaction, the best ways to improve it, and how elevating your pest control software can yield significant results.
Common reasons for poor pest control customer satisfaction
There are a number of factors that can contribute to low field service customer satisfaction scores in the pest control industry, but it mostly boils down to poor visibility, poor communication, and no self-service options in your pest control software.
But here’s something pivotal to note before we delve into the details: You don’t have to do everything perfectly — you just need to care about your customers’ experience and show them that you’re listening. Research shows that even when a company makes a mistake, if they provide excellent customer service, 78% of consumers will do business with them again.
Here’s a deeper look into some of the root causes of low customer satisfaction for pest control customers:
Low visibility
Transparent communication is key. Giving a four-hour window for an operative’s arrival simply doesn’t pass muster anymore, especially when customers know they can track a food delivery or Amazon package in real time.
Clients want detailed information about their field service appointments so they can plan their day and feel secure that their problem will be quickly addressed. Low visibility makes a pest situation even more stressful and anxiety-inducing than it already is.
Lack of communication
Low visibility usually goes hand-in-hand with a lack of communication. When customers don’t have communication touchpoints throughout their service journey — such as receiving reminders about their upcoming appointments, getting notifications about a technician’s ETA, being able to pass along information to their operative, and being able to view the technician’s location in real-time — their frustration levels skyrocket, and they feel like your business doesn’t value their time or patronage.
No self-service options
Most people don’t want to call a customer service centre and wait on hold to elevator muzak to make changes to an appointment. Clients want the option to schedule, reschedule, and cancel their pest control appointments at their convenience via a self-service portal, where they can see and modify upcoming scheduled appointments and other appointment details.
No post-appointment engagement
Customer experience doesn’t end once an appointment is over; in fact, the close of a pest control appointment is the prime time to gather feedback that can be critical for your operational strategies. If you don’t follow up with customers, they can’t communicate how things went — good or bad — and they’re unlikely to go out of their way to get in touch with you without prompting. That’s highly valuable data you’re missing out on.
How can you improve pest control customer satisfaction and engagement?
Clearly, customer engagement and satisfaction play a big role in client retention and long-term business success, and pest control companies that put intentional effort into improving their customer experience enjoy a competitive advantage.
So, what can you do to improve your customer satisfaction scores and elevate your clients’ experience? Here are some of the most significant changes you can make:
- Improve visibility. When you can exceed expectations, you’ll delight customers. This is particularly significant when the appointment revolves around a stressful situation like pest control. One of the simplest ways to do this is by providing clarity on exactly when an operative will arrive. Offer tracking options like place-in-queue updates or automated real-time ETAs with a link to a map that shows the technician’s location. Providing real-time tracking choices ensures that customers are available at the time of appointment and ready to answer the door, lowering the chances of missed appointments and reducing the number of chase calls to your call centre.
- Improve communication touchpoints. Just as transparency calms stress, so does good communication. Provide touchpoints throughout the entire customer experience: Automate appointment notifications and reminders to make sure customers remember their service date and will be available — this is especially helpful for pest control appointments that were set months prior. And offer two-way communication options that allow your customers to share important information with their pest control technician, such as access codes or directions.
- Provide a seamless self-service customer portal. When customers feel in control of their appointments, you’ll see fewer calls coming in for simple updates or appointment details. Integrate an easy-to-use customer portal into your mobile pest control software that allows clientele to see their appointment details; view who their technician is; and set, reschedule, or cancel appointments. This autonomy over their experience empowers customers to handle their own issues and improves your overall CES scores.
- Get feedback. How can you know what to improve if you don’t ask for insight from the very people you’re serving? Give your customers an opportunity to rate their technician’s service, voice their opinions, and communicate their likes and dislikes via feedback surveys that send automatically at the close of an appointment. This is helpful not only because a customer’s thoughts will be top-of-mind right when the service has ended; it also gives them space to respond honestly without having to awkwardly give feedback to their pest control technician face-to-face. But it doesn’t end there — don’t forget that your response is half the battle. Get notified immediately when negative reviews come in so that you can address customer concerns in a timely way, and incorporate general feedback into your business strategy to demonstrate to customers that you’re really listening.
Upgrade your pest control software with Localz
Localz was created to make field service experiences a delight for your customers. Our bespoke mobile workforce solutions are designed to exceed customer expectations of what the day of service should look like, with seamless, scalable location technology and communication workflows that save time and boost customer engagement.
Providing high visibility, frictionless two-way communication, easy-to-use self-service portals, and automated feedback-gathering tools are just part of what Localz can do. And it can bolt on to your existing pest control business management software — no tech stack overhaul required. The best part? It’s all customisable to your unique business needs, so you can take what you want and leave the rest.
Want to find out more about how Localz can elevate your pest control company’s customer engagement and satisfaction? Get in touch today.
